Oxford Art Online

Grove Art: Subject Guide

Art in Eastern Europe

Anna Brzyski, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of
Kentucky

What is Eastern Europe?

The understanding of Eastern Europe as a distinct geographic and cultural region is, to a
significant extent, a product of recent history. It can be traced to the division of Europe
into the Western and Soviet spheres of influence in the wake of the allied victory over
Germany in the Second World War. “Eastern Europe” generally designates those areas that fell
within the so-called Eastern Bloc during the period from 1945 to 1989. The Eastern Bloc
included communist states closely allied with the Soviet Union, such as East Germany (GDR),
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as
countries that eventually broke away from the USSR but maintained communist governments,
such as Yugoslavia and Albania.

The current understanding of Eastern Europe takes into account events that occurred after the
dissolution of the Eastern Bloc. In 1990, East Germany merged with the Federal Republic of
Germany. The reunified German state is not
considered to be part of Eastern Europe, even though the GDR was a key member of the Eastern
Bloc. In 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the 1990s,
the Yugoslav Wars led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the formation of the new
states of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991 also created a number of new sovereign countries. Those whose borders
fall mostly within Europe – the former Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, as well as Russia
itself – are generally included in Eastern Europe.

Early developments

The notion of Eastern European art can be problematic when applied to works produced before
World War II, since the idea of Eastern Europe is based more on the political construct of
the Eastern Bloc than the actual geographic location of the countries in question. While
some nations certainly fall within the eastern portion of the European continent (the Baltic
states and Russia), others belong to central Europe (Poland, the former East Germany, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary), and the remaining countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania,
and the post-Yugoslav states) fall within southern Europe and the Balkans.

This geographic spread is responsible for the diversity of cultural traditions and influences
apparent in the region. This is particularly true of the pre-modern and the early modern
periods, when geographic proximity often determined the direction of influences and the
dissemination of particular decorative motifs, architectural styles, techniques, or
iconographic traditions. While the areas belonging to central Europe developed close ties
with western and northern European cultural centers, those in the southern and eastern
areas, traditionally associated with Orthodox Christianity, often looked to the Middle East
and the Mediterranean.

The dominion of the Hapsburgs over much
of central eastern Europe from the 16th century though the end of the First World War also
had a profound impact on the development of art in the region. The Hapsburg Monarchy’s
patronage and (later) the state policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire encouraged
contacts among artists within the state and promoted both the spread of international trends
and the development of distinct national artistic traditions. This was particularly true in
the decades framing the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries when central
European artists began forming exhibition societies and groups dedicated to promotion of
modern art (examples include the Mánes Union of
Artists and the Group of Plastic
Artists).

Vasily Vereshchagin, The Road of the War Prisoners, 1878–9,
Brooklyn Museum

From the early 19th century through the inter-war years, artists from Eastern Europe
frequently traveled to the major European art centers, establishing vibrant art colonies in
Rome, Munich, Paris, Berlin, and Zurich (examples include František Kupka and Marc Chagall). They were part of the international
modernist avant-garde that emerged in Europe in the early 20th century and many became key
members of the School of Paris that formed in the
inter-war period.

World War II to the early 21st century

The shared experience of over four decades of communist rule in the mid-20th century
profoundly shaped the cultural landscape of this region, affecting and, in many instances,
delaying development of art institutions, discourses, practice, and local markets. Although
policies on arts and culture differed depending on the regime (with some highly restrictive
and others quite permissive) and the Iron Curtain may not have been as tight a barrier as
once believed, it did impede the circulation of information, artworks, artists, and art
audiences, not only between Western and Eastern Europe, but also within the region.

As a result, although the development of art in Eastern Europe during the post-war
period followed the general trajectory of that in the West, it acquired its own unique
character in response to local political, economic, and cultural conditions. Two factors
played an especially important role in shaping post-war art in the region. One was
the promotion of Socialist Realism as the official
state cultural doctrine in the majority of the Eastern European countries during the 1950s
and 1960s (for early prototypes, see the work of Aleksandr Gerasimov). The other was an official distrust or even censorship and persecution of independent
contemporary art produced and exhibited outside the official channels.

In some ways, the current situation of art and artists from Eastern Europe echoes that of the
earlier inter-war period. After the fall of communism and the disintegration of the
Eastern Bloc, Eastern European artists began to emerge onto the international art scene.
During the 1990s, a period of painful transitions from centrally planned economies to the
market system, many artists began to explore the trauma and the legacy of communism,
producing works that dealt with various aspects of the postsocialist condition (examples include Il’ya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew into Space, 1981–8, or Marina Abramovic’s Balkan
Baroque, 1997). Today, artists from these regions are fully integrated into the
broader European art scene. Many live permanently or semi-permanently abroad while
maintaining ties to their home countries, and their works are exhibited and collected by
major museums worldwide.